American Missiles Pulled From South Korea To Buttress Campaign Against Iran

SEOUL — South Korea is playing a role in the Iran war, much to the dismay of the South Korean president, Lee Jae-myung. Mr. Lee told a cabinet meeting “we have expressed opposition” to its ally, America, transferring critical air defense weapons to the war zone. “It is an undeniable reality that our stance cannot be fully implemented,” he said. He makes clear that the Americans were moving assets out of Korea over South Korea’s objections.American cargo planes are reportedly taking off from Osan Air Base carrying Patriot missile batteries that were once poised near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea to support the widening campaign against Iran. Also being deployed from South Korea are portions of long-range Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense batteries set up 150 miles south of Seoul nine years ago for defense mainly against high-flying Communist Chinese missiles.As news of the missile deployment appeared on Korean websites, the quasi-government news agency, Yonhap, reported that American C-5 and C-17 transports had landed at Osan, 40 miles south of Seoul. Huge C-17 Globemasters are often seen there, but the C-5 Galaxy, the largest plane in the American Air Force, is a rarity.A major left-leaning newspaper, Hankyoreh Sinmun, with close ties to Korea’s left-leaning government, said flight-tracking sites disclosed the planes were “heading to the European continent, the Mediterranean, and regions near Egypt.” Although opposed to losing American missiles and other assets to the war in Iran, Mr. Lee sought to allay concerns. He was asked whether the deployment compromised the South’s “deterrence strategy” against North Korea. Yonhap quoted him as responding, “It does not.”Considering the South’s “defense budget level, the development of our deterrence strategy against North Korea and our international military ranking,” the president said, “there is no cause for concern about national defense.”Discounting North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Mr. Lee insisted, “In terms of conventional combat capabilities and military strength, it is clear that we are overwhelmingly superior.”Reports of weapons being shipped from South Korea to the Middle East coincided with the opening of annual Freedom Shield exercises, in which nearly 20,000 American and South Korean troops play war games on land, sea, and air. Despite outcries by South Korean leftists politicians that the exercises would ruin any chance of talks with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, the games, lasting 11 days, are basically as big as usual with one notable omission. This year, American marines are not conducting a mock assault on a beach on the eastern coast as in previous years.Asked about Korean suspicions that Washington was exposing South Korea to attack by North Korea, an American military spokesman pleaded “operational security reasons” for refusing to comment “on the movement, relocation or potential repositioning of specific military capabilities or assets.”In a message to the Sun, however, he insisted, “United States Forces Korea remains focused on maintaining a strong, ready and combat-credible force posture on the Korean Peninsula,” and “the United States remains firmly committed to the defense of the Republic of Korea.”Such reassurances were not easily accepted by Koreans with whom the Sun spoke. “This is not a good sign,” said a middle-aged office worker, Kim Yoon-mi. “We are threatened by China and North Korea. The absence of the U.S. military can give them a sign to do something stupid like attack us. “South Korea’s most popular newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said “concerns are growing that advanced long-range missiles — critical for deterring the U.S.’s biggest challenger, China — are being consumed too quickly, and that American forces are overly dispersed.”The newspaper also cited reports in the western press that American ground troops might land on Kharg Island in the northeastern reaches of the Persian Gulf, the main transshipment point for Iranian oil to ships moving down the Gulf.Chosun Ilbo estimated that the $630 million cost of the first week of the war “equals one-tenth of South Korea’s defense budget for this year.” Many of the “advanced weapons” deployed for the war, said the paper, “are also needed in potential conflicts with China over Taiwan or North Korean provocations.”

American Missiles Pulled From South Korea To Buttress Campaign Against Iran

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